Jonny Bairstow ready to 'learn on the job' about pink ball

The England and Wales Cricket Board prescribed a round of day-night mid-season Specsavers County Championship fixtures to help Bairstow, new Test captain Joe Root and others attune themselves to the demands of the new hours of play and prevailing conditions.

After three days at Headingley, however, wicketkeeper-batsman Bairstow's own experience was restricted to 115.1 overs behind the stumps and none so far in front.

By the time inevitable confirmation of Wednesday's washout was announced, Root had at least banked 13 unbeaten deliveries in the half-hour of play possible the previous evening as Yorkshire replied to Surrey's 516 for seven declared with 27 for one.

Their captain Gary Ballance, meanwhile - a possible to be recalled this weekend when the squad for the first Investec Test against South Africa is named - is another who did not make it to the crease before heading to Worcester for England Lions' three-day match in conventional conditions.

For Ballance especially, it might have been handy to have a sighter against the pink ball in case he is needed against West Indies at Edgbaston in August for England's ground-breaking first Test under lights – given the much-chronicled complication that he is colour-blind.

Bairstow has not seen enough either to have a strong opinion about the feasibility of pink-ball cricket in England.

"We haven't really played much with it, have we?" he said, noting as well that an August evening against the Windies may well turn out very different to late June against Surrey.

"There's obviously that twilight period that everybody speaks about.

"But with us playing now, when the days are very much longer, the lights don't take effect till later in the day – so that's going to be a bit more interesting going into the latter end of the season, against the West Indies.

"We only actually got an hour's play under the lights... so as for how it will react under the lights, there might be a bit of learning on the job."

His fleeting experience between the downpours has been inconclusive.

"(The pink ball) swung for a little bit, and then stopped," Bairstow said.

"It seemed pretty soft, almost like a bowling-machine ball... (and) it didn't really do much after the first 15 overs.

"It doesn't really seem like it's going to reverse-swing, even if you throw it into the dirt."

He expects, nonetheless, it will be an innovation which lasts.

"I don't know if there's going to be any tinkering with it, but it's something we're going to have to get used to," the 27-year-old said. "I think it's going to come in more and more."

Bairstow is unsure how well the pink ball will work in this country, or whether it is a necessary step, but will embrace the future regardless.

"We're very fortunate that we sell out Test matches during the day," he said.

"Whether or not we're conducive to playing day-night Test cricket in England – or whether we need to – is for the (people) above to decide.

"In the four-day stuff, it's not really changed the gate here at Headingley this week.

"The players have bought into it wholeheartedly, and will continue to do so ... we want Test cricket to be around for as long as possible.

"I'm sure the first time the white ball was used in a game there was umming and ahhing – that's the nature of a change."

In the more immediate future, a Test return for Ballance – after his sub-continent travails last winter but a prolific run of form for Yorkshire this summer – may well be in the offing.

"He's scored a serious amount of runs (this summer)," Bairstow said.

"He's scored a serious amount of runs over a long period of time – you can't argue with his stats.

"I think he's scored 32 first-class hundreds and 43 fifties, the second-fastest player to 1,000 Test runs and he's scored four Test hundreds.

"He still averages (almost) 40 in Test cricket ... he's a serious player, a class act ... and his form is second to none."

England seamer Jake Ball, meanwhile, expects to discover the outcome of scans on his right knee injury on Thursday, after limping out of Nottinghamshire's championship match at home to Kent mid-over earlier this week.